moon_camp

Moon Camp Explorers Winners

Team: ShinyBCampers

Summit Middle  Coquitlam    Canada Highly Commended Design – ESA Member States and Canada

External link for 3d

Project description

Our elaborate moon camp settlement can house 4 people comfortably. It includes living quarters, bathroom, washroom, two greenhouses, three storage systems, a dining room, a laboratory, an exercise room, a water filterer/ recycler/ tank, a battery, a generator, and a recreational area. The moon camp that we have built also consists of a rocket and a few robots to explore and do basic tasks. It also includes a couple of high tech rovers which are essential for travelling long distances. In addition, our space base is underground in a lava tube which makes a good insulator to keep the overall temperature consistent. Our moon base contains a VR room which can be used to make astronauts feel at home in the moon base and help them exercise.

Where do you want to build your Moon Camp?

Close to the Lunar Poles

Why did you choose this location?

We chose to build our moon base close to the Lunar Poles (more so, the Southern Lunar Pole) because, at the Lunar Poles, there are lots of craters that have lots of water ice inside where the sun never shines. There are also many craters and skylights leading to underground lava tubes. We can collect this water ice and turn it into water. With this, we can produce small amounts of energy and not be thirsty. We will also mainly build our Moon camp underground in lava tubes where we can have a stabilized climate of −20 °C (−4 °F). The entrance and the things that are above ground will mostly be in craters, therefore making it harder for meteorites to hit. Most of the base will be underground because it would protect us from solar radiation, lunar radiation, cosmic rays, and meteorites. The rooms that are above ground will be made with stronger materials to protect our astronauts.

Water
Food
Electricity
Air

Water will be extracted from the water ice on the surface of the moon. That’s why we’ll be landing on the lunar south pole; it is strongly suspected that there are large amounts of water ice near craters by the lunar poles where sunlight never shines. We will also acquire water by filtering human waste into drinkable water: The urine will be collected from the toilets into a rotating drum, which will heat up the urine, therefore, creating condensation by separating the urine from water. This process is repeated several times until the water is purified.

Food * Our food will come from one greenhouse on the surface. The camp will have potatoes, wheat (opening a door to many more varieties of food and ensuring our astronauts will not think the food is bland), lettuce (such as kale), carrots, blackberries, and white mushrooms. All these foods that we selected were specifically selected by 2 aspects: the vitamins and minerals that they contain, and how efficient it is to grow them. Some of the vitamins include vitamins B6, C, B3, A, K, E, B and D. Some of the minerals include copper, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, fibre, iron, zinc, phosphate, calcium, and biotin.

Power * Most of our power will come from solar panels, geothermal energy, and electrolysis. The solar panels will generate just enough electricity to power the moon camp. If any extra power is needed, then it will be provided with geothermal energy and a process with water called electrolysis and can also produce oxygen. Our team has found clues on the surface of the moon (and information from various websites) that there are volcanos on the moon. We will use the magma inside these volcanos to better create geothermal energy.

Air *Air will come from the plants and the water that we have. The plants will suck in carbon dioxide and will breathe out oxygen which will be distributed throughout the base by ventilation systems. The water can provide oxygen by electrolysis and can also provide power. In the case of punctures where oxygen could get out, the tunnels and vents connecting the rooms may be “lockdown” to prevent more oxygen from escaping.

How do you plan to build your Moon Camp? Which materials would you use?

Our lunar base will be built underground in lunar lava tubes. We’ll also build rooms on the surface of the moon, which risk being hit by meteorites. For these rooms, we’ll use materials from Earth, like metal or plastic. However, we’ll use 3D printing robots to create and build with “lunar-crete” using lunar dust, lunar regolith, and water. Our base will be in lava tubes because it allows us to use fewer materials and protects our astronauts from dangers such as lunar radiation, meteorites, cosmic rays, solar radiation, and unstable moon temperatures (127℃ to -173℃).

The Moon environment is very dangerous for the astronauts. Explain how your Moon Camp will protect them.

Our moon camp will be underground, protecting the astronauts from a copious amount of dangers such as solar radiation, lunar radiation, cosmic rays, meteors, lunar soil and unstable temperatures. Our moon base also protects our astronauts from the lack of oxygen on the lunar surface by using durable material for the spacesuits and buildings. The buildings above ground will be in a crater created by meteors where a meteor is less likely to hit it again. When astronauts go out, there will be a “concrete” path so the lunar dust doesn’t get into the suit and contaminate it.

Describe a day on the Moon for one of your Moon Camp astronauts

The astronauts start the day by waking up and doing their morning hygiene routine as they would. Next, they would go around to check if everything is running and stable. Next, they would have their first meal and start the day by doing research. We split up the research time into two slots so that they could study the moon in different periods of time. The research could include things like taking samples of the land, looking for life, researching land formations, etc. After that, they will also take some time to start expanding the base to create more room and space. Next, after their second meal of the day, they will take a small break doing an activity of their choice before they will exercise for around 2-3 hours. This ensures that the astronauts’ health is in check. After the working out, the astronauts will have a bit of leisure time to wind down before they go into their second round of research. Afterwards, they would clean up what they were doing, eat their last meal of the day, and report what they had gathered that day via a call. Then, they do a last check of everything, (equipment, storage, food supply etc.) to make sure everything is fine, do one last clean up of anything that wasn’t cleaned, and go to sleep.

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